11 RULES

for
COMPOSING
SUCCESS
By Oscar Osicki
I ns i de t he Sc or e
 I’ve been on the journey of “becoming a
composer” for some time now, learning
my craft and writing music regularly.

11 RULES FOR I’ve also had the opportunity to study

other great composers and artists of the

COMPOSING
past; how they lived, their habits, and
their attitudes towards writing music.

SUCCESS
This year I’ve managed to write more
music than ever, and I wanted to share
with you some of the most valuable
things I’ve learned, discovered, or
‘figured out’ – tips, skills, and ideas that
have helped me to write more music,
and write better music.
By Oscar Osicki
www.insidethescore.com There are never any rock-solid “rules” for
creativity. Everyone’s a little different.
But it is my hope that some of these
rules might resonate with you, and
change the way you work or the way
you think about creativity and
composing.
 Just Do It:
Don’t Wait for Inspiration

Thomas Edison once said “Genius Is 1% inspiration,

and 99% perspiration”.

Almost every great artist, writer, and creative had

regular daily routines which involved them sitting
down to create, whether they felt ‘inspired’ or not.
They carved out regular hours to sit down and write.
Even today, many of the successful composers I
know schedule their composing time. They don’t
wait for lightning to strike – they sit down for a few
hours every day, and write.

The crazy thing is that when you start doing this,

you’ll find you have far more of those “lightning
bolt” moments than if you sit around, hoping for
inspiration.

The best way to have those amazing moments of

inspiration is: don’t wait around. Sit down and start
writing. Seriously: sit down and write, often, even if
you don’t know what you’re going to write. If you
begin to make this a habit, you’ll be amazed and
inspired by the results.
 The Creative Period

In my experience, the best way to begin a new

project is to treat the first 20% of your working time
as a “Creative Period”.

For example, if you need to compose something in

five days, treat Day One as a Creative Period.
Facing the blank sheet can be hard, and it can be
daunting to commit something to paper before you
know where you’re actually going. So, my answer to
that is: don’t!

Don’t commit anything to paper in the initial

“creative period”. Instead, explore, sketch, invent,
go on walks, and let yourself think outside the box.
Allow yourself to be creative. This is such a freeing
process, and feels so much better than trying to
force something onto paper before you’re ready.
Once you’ve been through the creative period, you’ll
be in a far better place to begin writing something
that will make you happy.
 Apprenticeship Comes
Before Mastery

Historically, great artists and craftsmen began as apprentices.

Da Vinci started as an Apprentice Painter; Van Gogh was an
Apprentice Art Dealer; Henry Ford was an Apprentice
Machinist. Beethoven and Mozart both mimicked the works
of Haydn before writing their most original music.

Wagner mimicked Beethoven; Mahler mimicked Wagner;

Shostakovich mimicked Mahler, and so on… (This is a
simplification, but I hope you see my point!).

Nowadays, people are so anxious to sound original before

they’re ready; but before you can become a master, you need
to learn your craft. And who better to learn it from, than your
favourite composers?
 It’s Okay to Copy
(but not to “Steal”)

Following on from “Apprenticeship Comes Before Mastery”…

If you hear an amazing key change, or a beautiful bit of

orchestration, or something that you absolutely love and
want to learn how to do, then… it’s okay to copy. It’s okay
to learn how they’re doing it, and try copying that process
yourself.

When you’re in the learning phase of your lives, it’s okay to

copy the greats. This is a great way to learn!

Now, I don’t mean you should be stealing entire melodies

or pieces of music. But if you hear some amazing
orchestration, or some incredible harmonies, then I’d
actually encourage you to look at the score, figure out
what they’re doing, and try writing a piece of music which
uses the same techniques.

It’s not “stealing” – it’s learning how to do something. After

all, this is how many of the great apprentices learnt. Da
Vinci would spend hours copying his master’s paintings.

If you spend enough time learning from the greats, you will
eventually absorb their techniques, and be able to use
them intuitively. And that is a tried and tested path to
mastery.
 The Importance
of Form

Form, or structure, is essential to think about when

writing a piece of music.

Think of it this way: when people are listening to music,

they want something they can ‘hold on to’. They want a
theme, or some kind of clearly presented idea which they
can latch onto; and then they can follow this idea as it
develops, mutates, and transforms over time.

If your music is formless or incredibly hard to make sense

of, don’t expect many people to enjoy it.
Form is how we make sense of the world, and form is how
people will make sense of your music.

There are some tried and tested forms, used by composers

for centuries (and with good reason!). For example: A-B-A’
form, where we have a contrasting middle section,
followed by a return of the A section which has been
transformed into something new by the journey.

Or, if you want something a little more challenging,

composers love writing in Sonata Form.
(If you want to learn more about musical form, check out
my YouTube series on How to Listen to Classical Music.)
 Take Us On A Journey

The wonderful thing about Western Art Music is how it

can take you on an expressive, emotional, and
sometimes logical journey.

We are presented with a musical idea – perhaps a

theme. That idea is then expressed, explored,
developed, mutated, distorted, and taken through all
kinds of moods, until finally, it is brought back to rest,
either back at home, or in a new home. Some composers
like to take us on a journey from darkness to light…
Others from light to darkness… And some like to start at
home, take us through darkness, light, and everything
in between, before bringing us back home again.

In any case, the best composers take us on a journey

with their musical ideas. And in the very best cases,
their ideas are so clearly presented, and their form is so
well executed, that this “journey” grabs the listeners
right from the start, and doesn’t let go until the end.

Think about this idea of a journey, or narrative ‘arc’,

next time you write a piece of music.
 Get A Lot Out
Of A Little

This is a lesson I learnt early on in composing: The

best chefs can make a few simple ingredients taste
delicious.

Rather than chucking 20 ideas into your music and

hoping that will make it better, try just working with
1-3 ideas.

See how much you can squeeze out of the smallest

number of ripe ideas. Beethoven is often cited as a
master of this (his 5th Symphony is extremely famous
for its 4-note motif, which is developed for 8 minutes
or more). You can do it too.

Your idea can be longer than 4 notes, of course; but

once you have an idea, see how far you can run with
it, before having to introduce a different idea. The
best composers can fill out an entire piece of music
with a small number of good ideas.
 Impose Your Own
Limitations

The reason we often get stuck when composing is

because of “decision overwhelm”. When we’re
writing, there are too many infinite possibilities –
it’s hard to know what direction to go next, when
there are infinite directions to choose from.

That’s why you should actually impose your own

limitations on your music.

Shakespeare wrote his love poems in sonnet form –

all of them are 14 lines, with 10 syllables in each
line, following a certain stress pattern. If he had
written these poems in free prose, do you think they
would be anywhere near as powerful? By restricting
himself to 14 lines, and 10 syllables per line, it
forced him to be concise, creative, and direct with
his language. Having limitations actually made him
write better poetry.
In the same way, you could limit yourself to only a
certain set of instruments, or to using only a particular
scale, or to working within a particular form (why do
you think so many composers work in sonata form?). If
you impose good limitations, you’ll actually often find
yourself getting straight to work, instead of pondering
over what to do next.

On a similar note, if you’re a digital composer, don't

buy loads of sound libraries. Instead, see what you can
get out of what you have. Immense creativity to be
found in manipulating things you already have at your
disposal.

To end this point, here’s a quote from Stravinsky:

"My freedom will be so much the greater and more

meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of
action and the more I surround myself with obstacles.
Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength.
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees
one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit."
 Prioritise Deep Work

Cal Newport coined this term in his famous book, “Deep

Work”.

It’s the kind of work where you sit down for several hours at a
time (or at least one hour), and focus absolutely on one
complex task, without any distraction. No phones, no
internet, just you and your task.

Once you’ve been working on a complex task (such as

composing) for around 30 minutes straight, your brain starts
to go into a different mode. You start to go “deep”. It’s as if
the world around you disappears, and you’re just purely
focused on the task in front of you; you start to lose track of
time, and you begin to make amazing progress on your work.
Some people call this a “flow state” – everything in your work
just begins to flow.

This flow state can only happen if we allow ourselves to focus

purely on one “deep task” for a prolonged period of time.

Most of us live in a distracted state, so Deep Work can take

some practice to get used to. But try it – once you experience
that flow, you’ll never look back!
 Baby Steps

Your first piece of music may suck, that’s OK.

Your tenth piece of music may suck, and that’s still OK.
The important thing is to keep moving forwards – one
step at a time.

Be gentle with yourself, forgive your mistakes, and

never expect to be perfect – just get moving, and keep
putting one foot in front of the other.

Rome was not built in a day, but it was built, step by

step. Keep taking baby steps, and focusing on your
progress.

Remember that EVERYBODY started at the beginning;

and instead of focusing on them, focus on your own
progress.

Don’t try to conquer everything in a day… Focus on

what’s in front of you, today, and take those “baby
steps”, which in turn will lead you to the next steps in
your journey. Just write that next bar of music!
 Finish It

With almost everything I’ve ever written, there’s come a

point where I’ve thought “this is crap, this is rubbish, I
should stop”. I used to follow that instinct – consequently,
there is so much music that I’ve left unfinished.

However, you will learn so much more if you force yourself to

finish what you started. Instead of giving up when you begin
to feel those twinges of doubt, push through! Finish what
you started! In finishing, you will learn so much, even if that
piece never makes it to your portfolio.

I’ll say it again: almost every single time I’ve composed

something, there’s been a point where I’ve wanted to throw
it in the trash and give up on it.

However, whenever I’ve forced myself to finish, I’ve almost

always been pleased with the results, and I’ve learnt how to
solve new problems, and therefore I’ve grown as a composer.
Make a rule for yourself: I will always strive to finish what
I’ve started. Even if I feel that resistance, even if I have to
push through feeling like my work is crap, I will strive to
finish what I started, because I know how much I will learn
from that experience.
 ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Oscar Osicki is a composer, conductor,
and founder of Inside the Score, a
music-loving community with
thousands of dedicated members.

Oscar’s mission is to strengthen

people’s understanding and
appreciation of music - to help them
become better composers, better
performers, and better listeners. He
wants to spread a love for Western Art
Music as far as possible, and teach the
skills and techniques necessary to
become stronger musicians.

His online courses are designed to push

people to new horizons, and to develop
and train their musicianship and
musical ability. His popular Musicality
course is an intensive program which
gives a thorough training in sight-
reading, ear skills, writing, and music
theory – all the foundations you need to
become a better musician.

To learn more about his courses, you can visit:

www.insidethescore.com/programs